Monday, March 1, 2010

Charlie Bernhaut Channel

Got an email this morning about a great internet radio show, the Charlie Bernhaut Channel. I've been listening to one of the shows for most of the morning and I'm hooked. It's a treasure trove of chazzanus (cantorial) music a well as a variety of Orthodox and Chassidic music artists. I think I'm going to be listening in regularly. Here's the official description...

"Charlie Bernhaut’s volunteer 'radio career' began in 1977 when he introduced the Friday morning pre-Shabbos segment on Larry Gordon's "Jewish and Hebrew Sound" at WFMU. In 1980 he created "Two Hours of Jewish Soul Music" on WSOU – which ended in 1996. In recent years, under the auspices of Cantors World, he hosted a one hour cantorial program every Thursday at midnight via WSNR.

The first hour of the internet music program will be a mixture of Israeli, Yiddish, Chassidic, Sephardic, Choirs, Instrumental, Comedy, Historic, together with frequent brief interviews and commentary concerning Israel and the Jewish world. The second hour is solely 'chazzonus' - cantorial music. Via this hobby, Charlie is pleased to share his private collection of over 15,000 Jewish albums with listeners. There will be no commercials.

Lovers of 'chazzonus' recall that Charlie, together with his friend, Cantor Benny Rogosnitzky, formed "Cantors World" and helped to revive interest in traditional chazzonus."

To give you a tasted of what you'll hear on the show, here's are two videos of songs I heard this morning (or are close to what I heard).

The first is a vintage Reb Shlomo Carlebach singing Mimkomcah.

SHLOMO CARLEBACH MIMKOMCHA - VINTAGE

The second is a video of Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt singing Acheinu Kol Beis Yisroel.

About Teruah-JewishMusic

I'm a Conservative Jew living in a Christian farm town in Michigan, USA. For me, Jewish music used to be Adon Olam, Hava Nagila, and Fiddler on the Roof. I started getting a clue a few years ago. Jewish music is Klezmer dances, Sephardic ballads and Chassidic niggun. It's thousand year old hymns, three hundred year old Shabbat table songs and 60 year old partisan resistance songs. It's contemporary hip-hop, punk rock, electronica, jazz, and chamber music. In addition to loving its musical and spiritual qualities, Jewish music helps me connect my family with a much broader and diverse Jewish culture than is available locally. The Teruah blog helps me document my exploration and share it with others. Why the name Teruah? Teruah is a call on the shofar on Rosh Hashanna.